“The risk that a legal handgun becomes an illegal handgun is not a hypothetical risk. It's established.” —Attorney General Michael Bryant
In fact, there are 582,000 legally owned handguns in Canada. During 2004 3,582 legally registered firearms were reported lost or stolen here. In the first 11 months of 2006 the number had already risen to 4,187.
Toronto police estimate that seventy percent of the handguns they seize have been smuggled in from the U.S. - a figure that citizens who want to avoid a total handgun ban in this country will swiftly point to. But guns smuggled across the U.S. border obviously aren't the only ones to stop a heart beating.
In the instance of gun control, it's our misfortune to live next to a country that sometimes still feels like the wild west. In 2001 there were 11,348 homicides cause by firearms in America, compared to 168 in Canada. That same year saw only 96 homicides caused by firearms in the United Kingdom (which has roughly double our population but is free from our particular border woes).
Pulling a trigger is an easy way to kill, a fact that's well illustrated by a sky high U.S. homicide rate. Clearly we need to stem the flow of weapons from the south but getting 30% of handguns off Canadian streets could make a significant impact on homicide figures and other crimes. Just how many more innocent eleven year olds have to die for us to see the light?
